Loose Ends
by Jael K
Summary: About a year after Sara and Len visit Len's Earth (see "Hearts of Steel"), the Waverider gets a call from STAR Labs. And it seems a few visitors might just clear up some loose ends for this pair.


Happy birthday to LarielRomeniel! (And thanks for the beta!) I know I said that "Hearts of Steel" was the last story in the Len Snart stories, but I apparently lied. :) (You might want to read those stories first, to see what's going on.)

* * *

"Len?"

He'd finally fallen asleep what, three hours ago? Len Snart mutters something into the pillow, refusing to open his eyes, yanking the blanket up over his head.

Sara…whose room this technically is, although he'd pretty much moved in months ago…chuckles softly and not without sympathy. She knows, after all, because she's the one who'd sent him and Ray and Mick on the particularly exhausting mission they'd only returned from three-hours-and 17-minutes ago. Or so.

"Umph," he tells her indistinctly, speaking into the pillows.

Sara sighs. "Len," she says quietly. "I know. But I need just a minute, OK?" She sits down on the edge of the bed. "Then you can go back to sleep for a while. But you should know this."

That doesn't sound good. Len cracks an eye open, then rolls over, eyeing Sara, who's fully dressed and looking far too awake and put-together. (Well, _she'd_ slept.)

She gives him a half-smile, registering that he's listening. "We just got a distress beacon from STAR Labs, back in 2018 on our Earth. Not much info…but the message said you need to be there." She pauses. "I don't know why. They haven't responded to any other queries, but then we're not really set up for that."

Len can't say precisely that he's fully awake now, but he's a helluva lot more awake than he'd been a few minutes ago. He stares at Sara, who gives him a regretful smile as she reaches out to wrap her fingers around his as they curl around a blanket.

"Lisa?" he says finally.

He'd finally met this Earth's version of his sister a few months back, and it'd proven…complicated. Lisa of Earth-1 was still a mix of enraged and heartbroken over her brother's fate, and seeing his doppelganger had been a kick in the gut. But they'd worked it out, somehow, arriving at an understanding of sorts, and he'd made her promise to call if she needed anything, anything at all. (While giving Cisco a flat sort of big-brother look, which seemed to be expected of him.)

Sara's eyes are sympathetic. "I don't know. Best I can tell, there wasn't anything majorly wrong. It was Barry, and you know him…he's not great at concealing things. If anything, he sounded…" She pauses, considering. "…extremely excited."

"That kid could get extremely excited over a new flavor of ice cream." Len closes his eyes and sighs. "OK. How long?"

"You have a bit. We need to take our 'guest' back home first." She smirks at him as he sighs again.

The guest in question is one Butch Cassidy, who'd been thrown ahead in time by a temporal anomaly and, less daunted than expected by the 1950s, promptly started putting together a new "Wild Bunch." Len and Mick had arranged to get recruited, with Ray unable to resist tagging along, while the others had tried to figure out where to deposit Cassidy that wouldn't mess up the man's personal timeline. Len had been rather beleaguered, trying to keep Mick (who'd hit it off famously with Cassidy) from backsliding-and trying to restrain Ray, who was overjoyed to be in such famous company and kept happily quoting a movie that wouldn't come out for another 10 years to a confused outlaw.

No wonder he'd been exhausted.

"OK," Len mutters, closing his eyes again. "Well, the least that bastard owes me is another hour or two of sleep." Then he opens one eye and starts to lever himself up on an elbow. "Or do you need me to…"

Sara's smiling as she puts a hand on his chest, pushing him back down. "Rest, Len. We've got this."

"Make Ray and Mick put their new BFF back where he belongs." Damn, he's tired.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea." He feels Sara's lips brush his forehead. "I'll handle it."

"Urm."

He hears her leave the room then, as he wills sleep to return. Of course, despite the exhaustion, his brain picks now to start obsessing over this mysterious call from STAR Labs—the one he needs to be there for. Could this Lisa and Cisco…nah. But then what…

It's been nearly a year since he and Sara returned from his Earth, and it's been good. Very good. He's continued to fit in with the Legends, working with them far better than he'd ever worked with the League. And he and Sara challenge each other and back each other up and flirt and drink and fight and sleep together. They're head over heels in love, and they make no secret of the fact at this point, and the team is amused and supportive, and life is sweet.

Except…

He's thought about having Cisco vibe him back to his Earth to check on Lisa, to make sure she'd really taken the cure, to make sure it really worked. To make sure she's as happy as she can be, and safe.

But he'd left the ball in her court, and he's screwed up so much when it comes to his little sister that he's loath to blunder back into her life just when she may be mending it. Mick knows how to find him if they want to get in contact.

Which would lead them to Earth-1's STAR Labs. Which has just called for him.

He doesn't want to hope.

But he can't help it, either.

* * *

Len does sleep again, almost against his will, and Sara only wakes him well after Cassidy is safely back in 1900. She knows him well enough to read how fidgety and irritated he is at the sigh of nerves and gives him some space, pushing back and giving him a verbal set-down when his crankiness goes too far. He showers and dresses when they land in 2018, then joins the others to figure out who's going where.

"Well, it doesn't seem like anyone's attacking the city," Jax notes, looking at the newspapers Gideon's pulled up on a viewscreen. "And Barry probably would have told us if they needed all of us. And he didn't."

He looks at Len, then, and the rest of the team follows suit. They know, at this point, about his sister and Mick, know that'd he'd left behind loose ends on his Earth. Len, already nervy, shifts in place, annoyed at the discomfort he's showing and a trifle uneasy at the attention. He's been just one of the team for so long now; he rather hates it when someone takes note that he's from…somewhere else.

"OK, then, just let me go," he says, turning a snap into a mutter with great effort. "No one else needs to bother. For all I know, they just need my powers for something."

No one mentions that Team Flash has its own ice meta. Sara regards him, then eyes the others.

"I'm going with him," she tells them, not even looking at Len. Well, maybe he deserves that, for doubting she'd have his back here. "Someone needs to stay with the ship..."

"I will." Mick shrugs as the eyes turn to him. "Eh, I'm a better pilot than the rest of you losers—uh, not you, Sara—just in case we have to move the ship, and it might be better if I stay away from STAR Labs. If...well...I don't think I wanna meet another me. Too weird."

It's perceptive. Len and Sara had long since discussed (back when Len had been a little more optimistic that his Lisa and Mick would at least check in before now) that maybe it would be better if the Micks native to their respective Earths didn't meet. Despite similarities, they're two very different men, although Len has the uneasy feeling that they could egg each other on to greater heights—or depths. Mick has apparently decided the same.

Impossible not to notice, though, that the team has come to the same conclusion that Len's trying not to reach— the one that he's still holding out hope for.

* * *

In the end, Len and Sara head for STAR Labs on their own, with the team reminding them multiple times to yell or call or whatever and they'll be there ASAP. Stein and Jax even assert that they're going to wait a little while to be sure that all's well before they head out to visit their own families, and Len's rather touched by that—so much so that he even tells them so. (Jax slaps his back and grins like he's the older of the two, and Stein bestows one of those fond quasi-paternal smiles on him.)

They have keycards to the labs, but Len still refuses to use his—and today is no exception. He heads for the Cortex, trying not to let his steps lag, Sara's even stride beside him helping, in a way. They can face anything together, right?

Over the past year, he's been thinking that sort of thing a lot. Interesting. And enough to have him thinking other thoughts he's never had before.

But first, he has to get through this…whatever it is. Len feels his lips twitch, even as the end of the corridor approaches. And wouldn't it be hysterical in a depressing sort of way, after all this, if Team Flash just wants to enlist him for a team-up, or something?

But nearly the moment he sets foot in the Cortex, he knows it's not just that.

It's far more.

Lisa's standing there, her back to him—this Earth's Lisa. Her hair is long and brown, and she's wearing the black leather jacket he's always seen her in, here. His Lisa had always liked lighter colors; it's one of their differences. And she's talking to…she's talking to…

He stops dead in his tracks and stares. Sara, beside him, stops too, and he can hear her intake of breath. It's not just him, then, he thinks distantly. She sees it too.

"Snart!" Barry hustles up behind him. "Seriously, of all the times not to use the key and give us a warning…"

Len ignores him. The two women ahead have heard him and, eerily in unison, they turn around. Now the breath hisses out of Len's mouth, like he's been physically booted in the stomach, and he takes a step forward, eyes on them, at an utter loss for what to do or say…

"Snart!"

And then he's hit from behind, so started that he doesn't even manage to ice up or lash out, breath driven out of him even more as his assailant lifts him right off his feet in a…bear hug?

Mick…it's his Earth's Mick, he realizes once he can breathe again, who else would it be?...drops him after a moment, stepping back as Barry, the jerk, laughs out loud and Caitlin, joining them, covers her mouth with her hand, obviously trying not to smile. Mick smirks at him in a way that suggests he knows just how much he'd startled his former partner, then winks at Sara. "Hello again, Blondie. Been keeping this ass out of trouble?"

"Getting into trouble with that ass, more like," Sara tells him, grinning as he barks out a laugh at the innuendo. "Hello, Mick. Still no fire?"

"Nah. Burned out a bit on it."

Len, who's not sure where to look right now, chokes. "Was that a _pun_? That was _horrible_."

"Well, you're not around, so…"

But someone's clearing their throat in an obvious bid for attention, and Len realizes that it's Cisco, who'd gone over to the two women Len had been staring at and apparently brought them over to the others. The room goes silent again as Len stares at them, and they regard him in return.

This world's Lisa finally sighs, giving him a sad little smile, far more emotion (other than anger, anyway) than Len's seen from her before. In a gesture that seems quite genuine, she rests a hand briefly on the other woman's arm for a moment, then turns and walks swiftly away, down another corridor. Len notices that Cisco watches her go, his expression melancholy, but the other man seems to think he needs to stay here a moment.

Sara, however, makes her own decision. She squeezes Len's arm and then heads off after the dark-haired woman, leaving Len looking at the remaining woman, who's looking back at him.

His sister.

Barry and Cisco are saying something in the background, but Len's not listening, not really. Lisa looks almost tentative, an expression he's rarely seen on her, but she's…she's herself. No longer a woman made of living gold. Her eyes are blue, with whites and dark pupils; her forearms are bare and normal sun-tanned flesh. She's wearing ordinary clothing, jeans and a white blouse, no more gloves that were the only thing allowed her to touch…anything. The only thing about her that's gold now is the necklace she's wearing—one he gave her years ago—and her hair. It's shorter, not quite to her shoulders, and so golden a color that Len would think it was still metal if it didn't appear to be moving just like normal hair.

He can't find words.

Finally, Lisa herself speaks. "It worked," she says, very quietly, looking at him. "It worked, Lenny."

Len clears his throat. "I see," he says, equally as quietly. "I…I'd wondered. I'm sure it wasn't pleasant…"

Lisa laughs a little, a disbelieving and breathless sound. "Are you kidding? I'm…I'm me again. And you came all the way from another _world_ to do that. Thank you, Lenny. I…"

She stops then, with a little squeak of surprise, because her brother has stepped forward and done something he hasn't done in years, not since they were both quite young. He wraps his arms around his little sister and hugs her, pulling her close and resting his chin against her golden hair, closing his eyes to try to stop the tears from welling up. (He fails.)

"I'm so sorry, Lis," he tells her, feeling his voice thicken and trying to ignore the little "oooh" from Team Flash and the gruff murmur from Mick. "I'm so sorry. I thought I was going the right thing back then. I was wrong."

But Lisa's arms go around him too, and he knows, finally, that he's forgiven.

* * *

Earth-1's Lisa Snart had ducked into an empty office in the lab complex, and that's where Sara finds her. The dark-haired woman is sitting on a desk and staring fixedly at her hands. She glances up as Sara moves into the room, then back down again.

"I'm glad for them," she mutters, sounding more angry and lost than glad. "Really."

"So am I. But…" Sara regards her, a bit at a loss. She's only met this Lisa Snart a few times, and the first was when she'd gone with Mick to tell her that her brother had sacrificed himself. It hadn't gone well. How could it? "But it's hard. Sometimes. Knowing …that Len's not _him_."

Lisa's gaze flicks back up to her, and, yeah, there's anger there. "Oh? Kinda seems like you didn't have much of a problem falling right into bed with this one. Didn't remember my brother very long _then_."

Now it's Sara's turn to blink, startled by the venom in the comment. She'd known Lisa regarded her with some suspicion, but she hadn't quite realized that the woman felt this way. In fact, she hadn't even told Lisa that she and the Earth-1 Leonard had been on the verge of…of something…when he'd died.

But maybe it'd been more obvious than she'd thought. Certainly, Lisa had been able to read her relationship with Len fairly accurately since the time she'd met him.

Lisa's still watching Sara, eyes hard, but Sara thinks she sees a flicker of uncertainty in them. She's suddenly forcibly reminded of how Earth-1 Leonard had been, back in the beginning, torn between his cold façade and his fragile connection with Sara, his growing ties to the team. He'd let go with a snide comment or nasty observation from time to time as if to prove that he didn't care, but it hadn't taken Sara all that long to figure out that it mostly just proved the opposite.

Damaged Snarts. She can't seem to help trying to get through to them.

So Sara looks Lisa Snart of Earth-1 right in the eye, takes a deep breath, and tells her, "Falling in love with Len was one of the hardest things I've ever let myself do."

Sara holds up a hand as the other woman starts to speak, continuing. "I'd been starting to fall for your brother, but it seems like you know that. When he…when he died, trust me, Lisa, you couldn't possibly blame me more than I blamed myself." She shakes her head. "I hadn't cared for anyone since...well, in a long time, and his death hurt like hell, and I promptly went in the other direction, one-night stands throughout time, trying to make it go away, to hurt less."

"And did it work?" Lisa's tone is acerbic, but she won't meet Sara's eyes.

"You know it didn't. And when I met Len...I shoved him away with both hands. There was no way I was going to let that happen again." Sara smiles a little. "He was persistent. And managed to work his way in, through my walls. It wasn't easy, Lisa. And I'll...I'll remember your brother until the end of my days. He made it possible for us to choose." A deep breath. "And I chose to...to live. To move on." She fixes the other woman with a direct look. "He'd want you to, too. And you know it."

Lisa stares back at her, then looks away again, avoiding her eyes. It's a very _Leonard_ move and Sara sighs inwardly. But after another moment, Lisa looks back, and Sara's startled to see a few tears in her eyes.

"I don't know how," she mutters, an angry, disconsolate comment. "I don't know what to do. I keep trying to go good, to do what Lenny wanted, to travel or go back to school...but then I get bored, and I think about him, and I get angry, and I..." Her fists, sitting on her lap, tighten. "I don't know _how_."

Sara makes a snap decision. "Come with us?" she offers. "Be a Legend."

Lisa stares at her another moment, then laughs a little. "Me? Time travel? Nah. It'd be really weird for...for Len to have his little sister's doppelganger kicking around, and Mick...Mick's turned over his new leaf. He's found his place." She twists her hands together, then, betraying an anxiety she doesn't otherwise show. "I need my own."

And to that, Sara's not sure what to say.

* * *

"...my hair was the one thing the pill didn't work on. I had to sort of shave it off—I looked ridiculous for a while." Lisa shakes her head gently, setting her golden hair swaying. "And when it grew back in, it looked like this. I kind of like it."

"An' we sold the old hair," Mick says cheerfully from where he's roaming around the Cortex, inspecting everything. Team Flash had withdrawn to give them a few moments of privacy, and Mick's rather obviously casing the place. "And the chair. Kept Scudder. No one would want something that ugly. S'ppose we could melt him down..."

Len and Lisa ignore that. "So, you're OK?" Len asks tentatively, from his seat on a desk, while Lisa perches a few feet away. "No other ill effects?"

Lisa looks down. "Well. Yeah. Now. But it was...it was pretty tough to acclimate, really, physically. I...I hadn't eaten in months, you know. Or seen, in a normal way. And I could be hurt again, and I wasn't used to it." She glances down at a few rows of small scars on her wrist, leading Len's eyes to them too and flinching at his intake of breath. "And then I got a little addicted to the idea of feeling again. In any way."

"Lis..." At the note in Len's voice, Mick moves toward them again, looming protectively. Len would usually be glad to see that, but at the moment, he's a little too preoccupied by his sister.

But Lisa's shaking her head at him again, and there's actually a hint of a smile on her face. "I'm fine, Lenny. Your friend found us. And she knew...she could tell I needed something different."

"My friend?"

"The hottie," Mick rumbles. "Um. Not Blondie. The dark-haired badass with the whip."

Lisa rolls her eyes. "Lasso, Mick. Lasso."

"Whatever."

Lasso... "Diana," Len breathes. "She checked in on you?" ( _"I give you my word..."_ a voice says in memory _._ )

"She did more than that." Lisa glances around as Barry and Cisco move back into the room, then looks back at her brother. "She took me to her home. The island?"

Len's jaw drops. " _Themyscira_?"

Mick sighs. "I asked her to take me too," the big man mutters. "But nope."

The idea of Mick loose on an island full of warrior women doesn't bear thinking about. (He'd either be dead in minutes or so rapt he couldn't speak.) Len shakes his head roughly, then stares at Lisa again. "I know of it. I mean, I've never been there, but I've heard...she took you there?"

"Took me, made sure I settled in, found me mentors." Lisa beams at him, then at the others. "I've learned...well, I've learned so much. I'm going back, after we return. There's a lot more I want to learn."

Of all the things he'd thought his sister could be, a scholar isn't particularly one of them.

"Study? What?" Cisco says then, his tone blank with surprise that Len considers a little insulting. (He's allowed to be surprised at the notion of his sister being a scholar. No one else is.)

"Oh, history, medicine. Remember how I used to want to be a doctor?" Lisa grins at them, looking younger and happier than Len's seen her look in a long, long time. "And self-defense. I bet I could kick your ass now, big brother. And maybe even yours, Flash."

"I don't doubt it," Barry tells her, grinning, as Cisco blinks.

Len shakes his head, then glances at Mick. "And you? What have you been up to?"

Mick draws himself up importantly as Lisa giggles. "Mick," she says solemnly, "is a consultant."

"A what?" Cisco can't help himself. "On what? Arson and assault? Maybe a little robbery?"

"On being a crook," Mick informs him. "Diana, she told those League people to call me if they needed advice on breaking and entering and all that crap. Some of those shiny heroes, they have no idea." He looks thoughtful. "They pay well. And they almost always seem to call when I'm getting bored, too."

Len flicks a glance at Lisa, who's still smiling. "Oh?"

"Diana pays attention, too," she informs him.

"I know you were always the brains of the operation, Snart," Mick continues, "but that's what I do, now. I ask myself, 'What would Snart do?' " He smirks at his friend. "Then I usually do it. But sometimes I do the opposite." He chuckles at the look at Len's face. "Well, buddy, you got some blind spots. Like the Flash."

"What? Why?" Barry asks quizzically, but Len hastens to change the subject.

"Not you," he says to the kid, glaring at Mick, ignoring the fact that he knows his own counterpart here had had the same blind spot when it came to this Earth's Barry Allen. "They really hire you?"

"Don't act so damned surprised." Mick folds his arms.

"Huh." Len thinks about it a moment, feeling a smirk spread across his face. "Dealt with Br...the Dark Knight yet?"

"Nah. He's a bit full of it, I hear. But I like the Big Guy. Good man."

"Who...?"

Mick shrugs. "You know. The big guy, wears a cape, red 'S'..."

Len's getting a little tired of his jaw dropping. "You mean..."

"And his cousin's hot."

Barry can't help it now. The speedster gets a good case of the giggles, sitting down and burying his face in his hands helplessly. Cisco looks like he can't decide whether to be appalled or amused and settles for both. Len and Lisa trade looks that hold resignation at both their antics and Mick's pithy way of stating things, which makes them both smile again.

"Well, at least someone thinks life's amusing." Earth-1 Lisa's dry tone falls into the relative good cheer in the Cortex like a sponge into cold water, sobering Barry up immediately and bringing Len to his feet as he turns to look for the other two women. Sara, walking a few steps behind Lisa, gives him a look compounded of sorrow and something more nebulous. Regret? Frustration?

Lisa continues past her doppelganger, not even glancing at Len or the others, picking up a backpack sitting by the side of the room. "I just stopped by to see what was going on in Central, and happened to see her," she says, turning and jerking her thumb at the other Lisa. "Distracted me." She pauses, then, regarding them, eyes unreadable. Cisco takes a step toward her, but she doesn't look at him, eyes on Len and his Lisa.

"I'm glad you got to see each other again," she says quietly, after a moment, sincerity in her tone-then shrugs, back to studied insouciance. "Now, if you'll forgive me, I've got nowhere in particular to be, but I need to be there soon."

"Don't go already…" Cisco blurts out.

"You don't have to…" Len says over the top of him.

"I meant the offer…" Sara adds at the same time.

But it's Len's sister who's risen to her feet now, watching her doppelganger with an expression that combines, Len thinks, a sudden sympathy, and an understanding that's beyond all the rest of them.

"No, come with _me_ ," she says abruptly.

"What?" five of the other six people in the room say, nearly in unison. But Sara's looking back and forth between them, Len notices, a sudden light in her eyes and a smile blossoming on her face.

"Come with me," Lisa repeats, taking a step toward her double. "Back to our Earth." She pauses. "And then to Themyscira. I told you about it, a little, before they got here."

The Earth-1 Lisa stares at her, backpack still dangling from her hand. "You gotta be kidding me. Why would they…"

The other Lisa cuts her off. "I'll tell them you're my sister. I've always wanted one." She gives Len a lurking smile, then looks back. "Sisters mean a lot, there. They'll understand. And you'll have a place to stay, time to think."

She lowers her voice then, speaking directly to the other woman even though there are others who can hear. "Trust me. I understand."

Earth-1 Lisa looks dumbfounded. Life's never offered many favors to the Snart kids, Len thinks, and the ones here were offered even fewer than the ones on his Earth. She takes a step forward, then stops.

"I don't think I can be...be what they are there," the dark-haired woman in black tells the golden-haired one in white helplessly. "Some scholar or warrior of the light...I don't think I have that in me..."

"You don't have to be," her doppelganger tells her firmly, then smiles. "But you just might surprise yourself. I did."

Lisa blinks at her, then glances around the room, gaze flicking over Len, Mick, Sara and, particularly, Len thinks, Cisco. Then she takes a deep breath.

"OK."

* * *

Len will admit that he wishes he could have a little more time with this new, happy, uncannily self-possessed version of his little sister, but he also recognizes that the longer she and Mick wait to return home, the more likely it is that Earth-1 Lisa loses her nerve and runs. For now, at least, the dark-haired woman seems a little rattled by her decision, but at peace with it.

Len, watching from his slouch against the wall, sees her gives Cisco a kiss on the cheek, a quiet word and a sad smile as they wait. His Lisa is talking, low and earnest, to Sara, who's grinning, and wouldn't he like to be a fly on the wall nearby for that conversation.

Or maybe not.

Mick, who'd been talking to Sara before that, ambles over to Len and the two men study each other. This man, Len knows, hasn't come to grips with the existence of _feelings_ in the way the Mick on the Waverider has—or, if he has, he sure as hell isn't going to talk about them.

So Len doesn't bring that up, doesn't tell his oldest friend how overjoyed he is to see him well and whole and content. Maybe even happy? Certainly this Mick has seemed to smile more than Len's ever seen before, and he hasn't even pulled out his lighter once. And Len will admit freely, to himself, that that makes _him_ happy, untying a knot in the vicinity of his heart that'd been there, to some extent, since the day their guns had gone critical.

But he can't say that. Not to this Mick, not now. Maybe someday. And it's enough to know, now, that that "someday" might exist.

"You OK?" he asks instead. "Enough cash? Decent place to crash? Not too bored?"

Mick snorts at him. "Don't try to mother-hen me, Snart. I'm fine." He thinks a moment. "An' you know, I sorta like working for the League, sometimes. I think I finally get why you joined up with them, while back."

"Really?" Len blinks at him. He can remember why he did—his desperation to save his city and the friends in it, for all that they wouldn't given him the time of day at the moment; his surprise when enough League members thought that he, a lifelong crook, was worthy of the accolade of membership; the rush of fighting and planning with a group again...

"Yeah." Mick smirks. "It's even more fun giving all those heroes shit when you're helping them out and they can't do anything back to you."

Len's startled into a laugh. "Yeah," he admits after a moment, "that was part of it." He straightens from his slouch as he sees Cisco, across the room, wave them over, then pauses. "You take care, Mick."

"Yeah. You too, Snart."

To Len's surprise, his sister approaches and drags him into another hug as he saunters over, but he's not too surprised or taken aback to wrap her in his arms one more time.

"You're OK?" she whispers to him. "You're happy? Because…because if you're only staying here because of how things were with us there…"

"Lis..." Len considers his words. "Yes. More than. I'm…" He shrugs uncomfortably, trying not to look over at Sara. "Well. I'm in love. Got every intention of spending the rest of my life with her. Never thought I'd have that. Yeah. I'm happy."

Lisa's eyes sparkle more then than they did when they were gold. "That's all I wanted to know," she says, pulling away, then pauses. "I…we'll…be back to visit," she adds, then goes up on her toes to whisper in his ear. "In case you have any particular events you want us to be there for…"

Definitely tired of the jaw-dropping thing today. Len stares at her, but Lisa just winks at him, turning away, toward her doppelganger, who's watching with an expression that can't decide if it wants to be jaded or hopeful.

Lisa of Earth-1 doesn't hug him. She doesn't even say anything. But she gives him a nod, and there's understanding in her expression. Len gives her a slow nod back.

And then Cisco opens a breach and the trio steps through as Len watches them, a weight lifting from his heart and mind. When it's closed, he lets out a long breath, then turns to Sara with a sigh.

"OK. Now, really…let's go home."

* * *

"So, what was my sister talking to you about?"

Sara's chuckle doesn't really assuage his concern about that little conversation, and neither does the fact that she gives him a small smile and nothing more in answer. Len had convinced her to take the scenic route on the way back to the ship, to stroll along the Earth-1 Central City waterfront that's really not like his city's waterfront at all. It's a lovely day, really, he decides, feeling a lightness of heart he's not sure he's felt in…well, his entire life.

And that's why, in part, he's decided to…to do what he's decided to do. Today.

"She just wants me to…how'd she put it?" Sara muses when they've stopped a moment at the railing, looking out at the water. "Not keep you out of trouble, because she knows that's impossible, but to continue to have your back." She gives him a smile, an open, sparkling smile, as she leans against the rail—gorgeous, smart, and badass, a partner and a lover and a friend, everything he'd once never admitted he wanted. "I told her, always."

Len puts his hands behind his back, concentrating, feeling one small, perfect crystal of ice form between the fingers of his left hand, and a smooth, round band of ice form in the other. He's been practicing this trick, telling himself that it's just for fine control, quietly thinking that it would be perfect for a…a gesture. Until they can get something more permanent.

And then he brings the two pieces together, fusing them with enough raw cold energy to keep the ring solid for quite some time, and takes a deep breath.

"Yes," he says quietly, eyes on Sara's as he pulls the ring out from behind his back and goes down to one knee, there on an Earth on which he wasn't born, looking up at a woman who'd hated him in the beginning, whose eyes have widened in shock as she watches him, but whose lips have already started to form the word he wants, so badly, to hear right now. "That's what I'm hoping for, Sara.

"Always."


End file.
